Central basketball team hopes to make Mater Dei play faster

Although Central High School's boys' basketball team ranks seventh in the state in scoring with a 74.8 average, just behind sixth-place Bosse (75.0), Bears coach Scott Hudson doesn't think about points.

"We talk about spreading it out and running the floor," Hudson said.

"When you get near the end of the year, teams may be clamping down a little more, so offense might suffer a bit. Sometimes you have to be more patient."

Hudson hopes Central (12-7, 3-3 Southern Indiana Athletic Conference) will make host Mater Dei (8-10, 0-5) play a little faster than it would like tonight. Tipoff is 7:30.

He is especially concerned about containing Wildcats forward Tyler Walsh, a 6-foot-6 senior who is averaging 15.5 points and 10.4 rebounds.

"He's turned himself into a pretty effective post player in 2A basketball," said Mater Dei coach Kurt Wildeman.

Like his teammates, however, he's struggled at times with inconsistency, Wildeman said.

Hudson is impressed with the job Wildeman does with the Wildcats.

"Their kids play hard and we know it's like any conference games. It doesn't matter whether they've won a game, or two, or three, no matter what you better come ready to play," Hudson said. "I think they have a really nice team. A lot of times Mater Dei comes on strong towards the end of the year.

"Sometimes they get a little bit of a late start because their football team advances pretty far. They really pick it up the second half of the season. They have a very good chance in their (Class 2A) tournament."

Dedmond poured in 25 points in Central's 83-68 victory over Princeton on Saturday night as the Bears snapped a two-game losing streak.

"The other night I thought we had pretty good team chemistry," Hudson said. "We're getting prepared for Mater Dei. The key for us is balance. We have to play hard, defend and rebound. Those are simple things for us."